Words are the casings that contain the explosive power of ideas. They are packages of potent meaning, arsenals of potential.

They can tie you to a miserable life or liberate you. Words like “blame” and “hate” and “can’t” and “never” stultify and cripple.

Words can also lift us.

They can wake us up, move us, motivate, inspire, change, redirect, open and free us. They can push us to reevaluate, leap, hope, believe, act, create and do.

Or they can be used to manipulate.

“A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.” ~Edmund Burke

Politicians and corporations and swindlers of every stripe spend billions of dollars and time with countless focus groups just to craft the right set of words that most likely and most often get us to buy or vote a particular way.

Poets use words to evoke thought and emotion. Authors use words to carry us to places we’ve never been, crafting a sense of intimacy with characters we’ll never meet.

So many words conveying so much about who we are, so many layers, so many slivers of identity captured in and conveyed by a few symbols we’ve added so much meaning to.

But when words sinks down inside us and attach themselves to our insides, their meaning fully imbibed, becoming part of the person using them, such words become authentic expressions of who we are or are becoming. Thy guide us and redirect us and shape us.

The words we use say a lot about us. They suggest sloppiness and laziness or precision and order. They underscore what’s important to us.

Are there words that mean something special to you? What words excite you? What words do you aim at incorporating into your life? What words guide you?

4 Words that can Change your Life

“If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.”~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Word #1: Think

In the frenzied and hurried life that we often find ourselves living, we sometimes fail to slow down long enough to do much thinking. Our thoughts are hand-me-downs, washed, dried and ironed things that are permanently creased or tattered and worn out. Or they sit dusty on empty shelves, stiff and rigid with neglect.

It’s time to dust off your mind, put it into gear and begin a new love affair with thought. Thought is the seed to action, the conduit to innovation and improvement and opportunity.

Set aside daily time to read and think and write down your thoughts. Start book of thought, a journal you record your best ideas in, or a computer file you collect your most cogent thinking.

Approach reading as you would an autopsy. Have scalpel in hand. Underline. Take exception. Explore. Consider. Dissect. Integrate. Write down ancillary thoughts that come to you as you wrestle with a new ideas.

Read books that challenge your assumptions, that take you into the world of new ideas, that give you something worthy of thinking about. Read history, psychology, sociology, science, religion, philosophy. Make truth the integrated goal. Try not to limit yourself to one genre or topic. Expand your mind. Open it. Explore its potential.

But when you read, don’t read to finish. Pause regularly to have an ongoing conversation or debate with the author. Never approach a book worth reading as you would a sprint. The only finish line you should aim at is insight. Someone who reads 100 books and picks up an insight or two is infinitely poorer for their time spent than someone who reads one or two books and picks up 100 insights.

Word #2: Believe

Belief is a powerful motivator. It can keep us going against all odds, when everything seems stacked against us. It can keep us on our feet when everything inside us wants to quit, give up and lie down.

Believe in the miraculous. Believe in your ability to make something beautiful of the dark and painful circumstances of your life. Believe you have something of the eternal and divine within you. Believe you are destined to make a difference.

When we believe our destiny is filled with opportunity, we do different things than those who believe life is meaningless and arbitrary and indifferent—or worse, malicious. We act differently. We treat each other differently. We plan and take risks and set trajectories differently.

But never believe a destiny is ever handed to you on a silver platter. Destinies are not made that way. They are worked for and sacrificed for and sometimes bled for.

The belief that you can create the life you desire will more likely produce the motivation that gets you out the door, busting your butt, getting to the daily work of fashioning the circumstances you want.

Word #3: Hope

Hope is the ignition key to everything you do. It is the motivation behind the start, pushing us into initial action, the first step. It has no hard evidence. It hasn’t matured into knowledge or even faith or belief yet. It is the softer than that.

Not wholly passive, but not quite dynamic. Still, it is enough for movement. It is the spark, the flicker, the reason anything is first pursued. Hope is why I started blogging. It’s the dream behind the vision behind the action that drives me forward doing what I do.

Hope is the taste at the tip of the tongue that causes pages to be turned, lives to be changed, innovation to be explored, faith to be tested and steps to be taken.

Word #4: Love

What do you love? What do you love most? Would someone who doesn’t know you be able to tell what you loved most if they followed you around for a day? If not, why not?

The more you love, the richer your life will be.

Love life. Love people. Love your family. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love what you do and do what you love. Love truth. Love decency. Love learning. Love personal growth. Love action. Love contemplation. Love the ability you have to influence others for good. Love the words that empower you to live closer to your God-given potential.

Love is what makes work a calling. It’s what turns drudgery into passion. It changes attitude and circumstance. It’s why people step up and why they commit and are loyal to an idea. A loveless life is a life filled with darkness and pain. But first seek to love. Extend it. Build it. Share it. Once you have injected love into your life, love will return to you as well.

Final words …

Words start movements and revolutions (“We hold these truths to be self-evident”). They inspire love and faith and devotion to a cause (“I have a dream”). They cause us to stand tall and speak up and overcome.

But too often, they become shallow and hollow, deprived of the resonance of meaning and commitment. But this, like most of life, is a choice we make.

Thanks David. Action is a great word to add. There are all kinds of people who spend all kinds of time thinking up all kinds of new ideas, but never shift things into gear, never take action. And so the ideas remain disembodied what-ifs.

Great words, Vidya. I love them both. The single biggest reason people fail to live their dreams if failure to take action over and over again, course correcting as they go, until the dream is a reality.

Smile is another great one. I’m definitely a smiler. And you’re right, the world does look and feel and react very differently to and through smiles.

I had a couple other words on the original list, but cut back last minute to shorten the post. I also had Forgive and Release (as in let go–similar to forgive in some ways, but encompassing more too) and one other word I can’t seem to remember right now (maybe it was Remember!). But the list could definitely be added to.

Thanks Susan! I have an ongoing love affair with words too (even if not so much with their origins) 😉 But I love the way one words can be used in place of another that slightly shifts the meaning or emphasis, or just poetically fits better.

Love your words too. The very word “Integrity” has such a hearty, strong and noble sound to it. And what would life be like without compassion and generosity?

Thanks so much, Porter. Belief in oneself is powerful. It changes how we approach life. If I don’t believe I can possibly learn something new, why would I ever take a class or read a book? But if I believe I’m very capable of learning, I’m much more likely to take the initial steps toward self education. And so with the rest of life.

As much as I like thinking, and I love your approach for reading books, I believe that life requires a certain balance. If you spend too much time thinking, or perhaps especially, trying to absorb too what other people think, then it’s easy to get lost. I spent years of my life just thinking..almost a decade. It’s not as rewarding as you would perhaps imagine.

The other words are perfect. Although I feel hope and belief are closely tied together, they are definitely the driving force behind me making an effort.Ragnar recently posted … 6 Ways To Invest Your Time Better

I like what you say here, Ragnar. It’s true, a contemplative life is wonderful … unless all you do is contemplate. Living without thinking is like running without looking. But to stand still your whole life and look without moving your feet is equally limiting. So the modification might be “think … then act!” Or “Think it through, then put it in gear and get moving! But keep the mind engaged along the way!” Perhaps a bit too long and bulky, but more accurate! 🙂

I also agree that hope and belief are similar. One allows for the initial step and the other motivates the other steps that follow.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Ragnar. Always love to be made to think! 😉

I got my first tattoo at age 15 and it was Faith. That simple word has carried me through the hardest times. It is not necessarily a religious word but the idea that I will give it my all every single day and somehow I trust (believe) that things will turn out fine in the end.Sebastian recently posted … Oct 9

I actually like faith better than belief. Faith, to me, implies acting on belief. People who have faith or are faithful live a certain way, based on the set of beliefs that animate them. They put their beliefs into action. The trust that faith generates is much stronger than the trust generated by belief, which may or may not have been tested in the furnace of application. Faith, I think, is belief after it’s matured a bit, after it’s been tried out in real life and proven beneficial.

I am a word lover – always have been. I think in words. I know that sounds strange, but think about it. Some people think in words, others in pictures, still others in ideas. Words are very powerful for me. I suppose they are powerful for anyone, especially the ones we choose to define ourselves or the ones we hear from ourselves and other people.

I never really thought of how I think in that way, Lisa, but I guess I would have to say that I mostly think in ideas, but often in images. Still, words deeply stir something inside of me. I like your addition. To act is to respect the meaning and important of the words we love. The highest level of respect, after all, is to apply, implement and become reflections of the most personally meaningful words.

Great post Ken. I love watching Joel Osteen on TV. He is such an inspirational man. I am also working through the book “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne with my twins. This book will change our lives 180 degrees. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is not achieving their goals.Wade Balsdon recently posted … How to Flatten Your Tummy Fast

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My name is Ken Wert, the founder of M2bH. My purpose here is to teach you how to live a richer life of greater purpose and meaning, of mind-blowing possibility and deeper, more soul-satisfying happiness than you ever dreamt was possible. Join us on this happy adventure as you learn how to unlock your hidden potential to enjoy the rewards of a life well lived. Read more ...